Road – Pic - Trip

Few days back it was a lazy weekend approaching when I got an invite from Jamy for lunch at his place on Sunday afternoon which I happily accepted. Any invite from Jamy is meant to be accepted unconditionally as it is always bound to be a fun session. Every time I had been to his place, he is always ready with surprises and we had all enjoyed every time.

I was joined by Opium and KG for that lunch. We had a splendid round of Rajma-Rice-Curry along with Raita. All this was followed by a round of mango delicacy courtesy KG. We all were relaxing after that awesome treat, sting when we had an idea of going out for a road trip. Opium opted out owing sleeping disorders of his but rest of us three proceeded towards an unknown destination .

We crossed people enjoying an careless evening at Maidan and Victoria Memorial as we proceeded towards our unknown destination.

From there we headed towards second Hoogly bridge with an intention to have a drive at highway. I was especially excited as this was the first time I was going to those places in my stint at Kolkata.

Crossed toll bridge and continued to drive towards Delhi on NH06 although KG wanted to drive towards Mumbai but Jamy smilingly turned down his repeated request.

 

The view all around was very refreshingly green and lovely reminding me of one of my older trips to country sides.

By the time we reached Kona expressway it had already started raining and we were enjoying each and every moment of that.

 

By this time it was getting dark and we were also feeling hungry so we decided to give rest to our engines and cylinders to cool off.

And then it was time for Begun & Aloo Bhaja along with cups of tea served hot complimented with Parle-G.

After finishing all this we decided to take a U turn and started our journey back towards our dens. It was raining all the way back adding to the pleasure of the journey.

Enjoyed this Road-Pic-Trip to the most and looking forward to so many detoxifying and revitalising moments like this soon with you guys…!

Don't show Us The Finger, “The Bachchans”

After the day of voting at Mumbai, we saw may celebrities sporting the inked finger and flashing it to the press and media, but I was quite shocked at Amitabh, Abhishek and gracious Aishwarya Bachchan brandishing their middle fingers for the benefit of photographers after they voted during the Mumbai polls. The world knows exactly what it means, even 12-year-olds even in Asian countries like India and China. And I suspect the teen in Bangladesh and Pakistan too understand this.

It was neither needed nor expected, even for a noble cause like  voting and nor was it can be considered decent. Soon other actors followed suit and there was a sizeable stream of Bollywood's glitterati making the obscene gesture. With final round of voting due tomorrow, I won't be surprised if hordes of young Indian voters, impressed by the finger flaunting celebrities, come out of polling booths across the country showing their middle fingers.

Some actors, though, fully aware of the significance of holding up their middle fingers all their fingers, more gracefully and correctly.

While I have don’t have anything against the gesture as such, or any other thing that people do privately, but I believe people seem to have taken offence at someone like the Big B and Aishwarya getting so rude, that too publicly. Few things or acts, however trendy and rebellious or youthful and iconic, are just not cool, especially when you subject others to it. It’s like smoking or using the big F word. 

In Western cultures, says Wikipedia, In many Western countries extending only the middle finger and sometimes along with the thumb of the same hand, is an offensive and obscene gesture, colloquially known as "flipping a bird" or "Flipping someone off." In some cultures, the middle finger is used as an index, to point things out.Believed by leading experts to be originated in North America.

Can we please have a less vulgar and more modern way of showing the support to voting now? So that there's no ink on our fingers and there's no need for Big B and Abhi-Aish to flash The Finger at us first thing in the morning when the go to vote next time?

Its raining @ Kol

Thank God, Its raining here at Kolkata..after a week of draining heat its rain time…cool breezeee and Kolkata looks good for a change…just there will be traffic jams..but no issues..we will still enjoy it :)

 

Professional Heart Breaker

In this era of professionalism where for everything we do have a professional services available. If we want we can get flowers delivered at any address using professional services available, get our house painted using again professional services.

Like we have professional matchmakers, sites offering these services of matrimony. You can be a free user with limited services or you can have professional assistance as a paid member.

How about a professional heart breaker or in other words a profile called “Relationship Termination Specialist”. If you cannot break your relationship peacefully you can hire one. In this world of fast dating, this will be a most sought after service. He will go and deliver your message to the intended person.  And this will save you from emotional atyachaar. Imagine how smooth your life will be with all this!. No frills and no strings attached. You don’t have to go to your boyfriend or girlfriend and tell what are the problems they have, like

1. They know only 2-3 jokes and all are pathetic

2. They are racist

3. They do not fit anywhere in public

4. They don’t have any taste!! and so on…

In this present scenario of downtime this will surely be a rocking professional option.

My walk of Life….

Today I stand here and look back and I see lots and lots of memories and experiences. A mixed bag of good, bad and ugly ones.

There are times when I feel like thanking everyone who made this journey possible and made this journey a pleasant one. These are the one who stood by me when I myself was struggling, who gave me shoulder when I was crying, who joined me when I was enjoying, who encouraged me when I was down and out.

Although there are very few people whom I can’t even dare to think of saying a “Thank You”, because they are the reason I am here writing all this. They mean everything to me, more than even my existence. They went through all pain to make me what I am today, they taught me how to live and how to be a good human being.

There are others also who share my current position in life both personal and social. Few ugly memories, few bad memories and people behind all that. I do give them also a bit of credit as they gave me few unforgettable lessons in my journey till now. Life is an endless journey of learning and improving and everyone should go through it.

So Thank You people again for being part of my journey of life. What ever I am now today I dedicate to you all my family, relatives, friends (present alongside and lost during this journey) and all my critics and well wishers.

I miss you all………... 

Have you ever been HR’ed

The credit for this blog goes to my colleagues Jam, Amy and Opium. They are the one who inspired me or rather forced me to write about this HR'ed topic.

I need to explain first what is meant by HR'ed?

The next thing I would explain is about the symptoms of being HR'ed

Then comes effects of being HR'ed on that person’s surrounding, peers and his life.

According to Opium every one of his vendor company is HR i.e.,Human Resource, not to be mistaken by HR department. So being HR'ed is getting influenced by some HR so badly that you change the way you live. Or the change in your style of talking, walking and behaving is visible to everyone around you. This HR'ed can be because of love, enthusiasm or because of so many other influences of that HR. If any of these happens to you you are considered as HR'ed.

Symptoms of being HR'ed includes talking to yourself, smiling all alone, singing songs, talking on phone while walking, eating, watching TV, sleeping etc, not getting annoyed by anything, roaming all day without any reason visible to others and so on….

This has got severe effect on his peers and colleagues. Every one is made to believe that nothing is going on although every one can see and feel it very clearly. There are several attempts made by the person HR'ed to make you believe that the HR is not from someone they know, examples are given and stories made.

But in all its a pleasure for the everyone other to watch the person who has got HR’ed.

Impatience is the new way of life!

I saw an advertisement today from Airtel with this punch line "Impatience is the new way of life!". The advertisement was related to broadband speed but it really reflects how we are behaving now a days.

We are getting impatient day by day. We cannot wait for our turn at ticket counter in Metro queue. We cannot wait for the lift to come down and keep pressing the buttons. We cannot wait to get a promotion. We cannot wait for the traffic to move on a traffic signal and keep honking (which should now be included in constitution as our birth right now). We don not have patience to watch even a one day match (and hence the concept of twenty twenty). We cannot wait for the food to be served when at a restaurant of cafe joint. We cannot wait for the exams to be over so that we can party. We cannot wait for the commercial break to get over so that we can watch our favourite movie or TV series. We cannot wait for the month to get over so that we can get our salary. We cannot wait for our turn ay pool table. We cannot wait for someone to complete his call if we are trying his number and keep on calling him.

We are truly getting impatient and and I am unable to understand whether this is for good or bad?

Satyam now thinks Technically Mahindra's way!

Finally an owner for Satyam after so much of drama, hatred, broken hearts and shattered dreams of people who had believed in a dream called Satyam. When this story of Mr Raju broke out, it shattered the image of corporate India across world and the employees were left clueless of their fate. Their credit cards got cancelled, their loans were put on hold by banks and so on.

Finally Tech Mahindra today offered a bid to purchase shares of Satyam @ 58 Rupees each. This would have given a sigh of relief to hundreds of employees who were worried about how to pay their debts like home and car loans apart from fulfilling the responsibilities of their dependents.

Its time now when we should forget the past and encourage everyone to fight together in bringing back the faith and confidence in our IT industry. Together we can fight back with much of ease and sail through this bad time. Ups and downs are part of life and this stands true for the IT industry also. In boom we and our fellows had enjoyed a hike of three folds or a two times salary while changing our jobs. Similarly in this time of distress we have to stay strong and be together so that this bad patch is also over and we can enjoy the fruits of our patience.

I agree that this is a time of recession but also believe that we should keep our faith in our abilities. This recession thing is fuelled by our minds also. Whenever we are together, the topics of our discussion related to recession. I wonder if companies across world were earning so much for past so many years, how come a recession of one year shattered their ability to grow?

I believe this takeover will help in regaining the honour of Satyam to its previous heights.

"Maruti" purchases Nano

The day booking for Nano started in India it was a dream come true for Ratan Tata.

First day of booking resulted in more than twenty thousand of bookings. There were people like a lady from Delhi booking two cars, one for herself and one for her college going daughter, like a middle class guy from Kolkata purchasing it for his family of four and so on. But what touched was case of a guy from amchi Mumbai "Maruti". This guy is a cobbler working for past thirty years in city. His family consists of his wife and a kid who will be passing SSC next year. When asked he told that he was saving for past six years for a bike and then came Nano. He thought why not go for a better option than purchasing a bike. This guy had paid one lakh forty thousand in cash for booking his dream car Nano himself without any loan. Although first one lakh owners of this dream car will be chosen by a computerised lottery but Maruti was very much confident of getting his car. The happiness of owning a car was very much visible on his face.

Mr Tata must be very happy to know the sentiments of people which are attached with the Nano. I personally adore him for his sheer simplicity, passion and truthfulness. The day Mr Tata launched this car his confidence and dedication showed in his statement "A promise is a promise". He made a promise to people of India and he kept his promise despite so much problems like Singur and political setbacks. His dream of offering each and every Indian a car is true now. I salute his dedication to this nation.

Hope other industrialists will take a lesson or I would like to say will be inspired from this initiative from Mr Tata and come forward for serving the people of nation instead of gifting Jets to their wives or building a mansion for their family of four or five.

Shoe Business

After the incident of throwing shoe on ex-US president Mr Bush in Iraq by a journalist, today there comes a repetition of similar type by a journalist Jarnail Singh (reporter from Daily Dainik Jagaran) hurling a shoe on home minister Mr. Chidambaram. If you had watched today's video footage closely, this was just a protest not a targeted attack on Mr home minister.

I believe most of the people who watched this episode will agree to the fact that this was really an act of protest not an attack.

When our minister was not ready to answer a question which was a non related query to that forum, the journalist said "I protest" and just threw that show, If he really wanted to attack him, he could had easily been on target. And our minister asked Poilce to go easy with him, I am not sure whether he really wanted to do so.  But has to do so because the whole issue of Mr Jagdeesh Tytlor being given a clean chit by CBI, that too just before the general elections is too sensitive to be taken lightly. Mr Jagdeesh being a Gandhi family loyalist can not be denied a ticket and people who suffered during that riot are not ready to forgive him and they should really not forgive him. No one should have an impression that just because he or she is in power or a politician, they can do anything and will be left uncharged.

Today we see in media Lead India campaign saying "No to criminals" but are the political parties listening? If yes, they why we are still having gundas and criminals as candidates. If no, why not? Do they think that they can do whatever they want and no one one will oppose.

So lets break their myth this time and continue this "Shoe Business" in all legal forms (including voting for right candidate only) for those who are not listening till they start believing that India is not owned by a bunch of people, instead we "The People" are the real owners of India.

I had read somewhere " In democracy, people vote first and then suffer but in Dynasty there is no option of voting" and we the people don't want to suffer.

अब आप अपनी भाषा में भी मेल लिख सकते हैं !

Thanks to Google transliteration tools I can write mail in my language to my freinds and family members..


Click Here for details

Excellent job done Team Google!!

Who owns "The Great Indian Culture"

There has been many rounds of discussion going on on Indian Culture. Who owns it, who will define which act comes within the limits of the culture and who is supposed to govern it?

Indian culture is a very subjective thing and it has been used by several groups and parties for their interest.

Our culture is there for more than few thousand years and its not so fragile that a few people can break or shake it. Also it doesn't need any expert politician to protect it. Although the government has got responsibly to protect the right of each and every citizen.

India is a free country, people have very right to do whatever they want. Going to a pub is absolutely not a crime and no one has got right to beat any man or woman who goes to a pub or a discotheque. After a long day at work if anyone wants to go to a pub or disc to unwind, I don't see any Culture violation in that. This whole issue is blown out of proportion by people, political parties and media. Ideally no one should be allowed to take the law in their hands in the name of God. And I seriously believe that people who are doing all this are a bit jealous that they can't go inside a pub and spend like other people are doing.

I stayed in Bangalore for two years and what I liked about that city most was the freedom and energy that city holds. People used to be free there to enjoy their lives as per their wish. Yes we do have responsibilities to keep private things within the limits and do not expose those acts in public. But that never means that to watch a movie in theatre, I have to take an approval from some group or to go to a pub I need an clearance from so called owners of Indian Culture. I think the people who were talking about Indian culture at Mangalore pub and attacking women who were present there forgot that Indian culture also talks about respecting women. 

On top of that Renuka Choudhary giving slogan "Pub Bharo".Why do the politicians are trying to take advantage of all this. I am not going to a Pub on directives of someone. I go there because I like the environment over there. And what I like and dislike has to be according to my wish. I being a proud citizen of this great country I would like to enjoy my freedom of expression, freedom of movement and all that freedom provided to me by my constitution. I pay my taxes to the government and would like to avail all the rights extended to me by my constitution.

If these things like being attacked because you belong to a group or sex, then what's the difference between living in a democracy like India and living under the rule of Taliban? Everyone including citizens and political parties are responsible for making sure that right people are elected and law and order is maintained at any cost. 

Why don't political parties recruit ?

All the political parties who wants to make our country shining and take our country to new heights, do not recruit by publishing as all companies do.

If they really are serious in what they say, why don't they publish about openings so that they can get really good candidates. Why only family members of politicians are into politics. Why not anyone line me and you?

If they really want this to happen they should recruit guys from various fields of specialisations. Ideally they should recruit guys from financial background for finance portfolio, from IT background for technological portfolio and so on..

Why the aspirant has to be from some of the political party man or some powerful background. We should get an option to choose from the best while voting so that we can have real leaders, not someone who has got criminal record holding a position related to people security or some one charged of forgery holding a ministerial position dealing with finance.

Ideally parties should publish the requirements and make their selection process open to public so that people can have a fair deal while electing their leaders.We can always have a mix of experience and enthusiasm by keeping a mix of young specialised guys and our elderly experienced politicians to guide them.

If I can vote for my next IT minister I will make sure that I will caste my vote and would love to see a really eligible candidates getting selected for the position.

What is a "Slumdog" and why are Indians getting irked by the movie's success

Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ has been nominated for ten Oscars. But many Indians are unhappy with the way India is portrayed in the film, particularly the way the poverty is served to the audiences.

The movie tells the story of an Indian boy from Mumbai's notorious slums who end up becoming a millionaire. He knew all the answers from his walk of life.

There are Indians who are proud of the Golden Globe awards it has won, and keeping their fingers crossed for the big big Oscars, some still believe that the film publishes a western colonial view of India. The movie in no ways reflects the real India, what it is now.

First thing that has to be noted is, although there are Indian contributions to this story but its not an Indian piece of creativity. Its an British movie, set in the backdrops of Indian slums and since its not our creation we do not have the credits.

As in any Indian movie, any American is a beer drinking guy with lots of dollars, similarly for them its always slum.

I personally like the movie just because of the way Jamal grew up in the story and the way it was portrayed to the viewers.

Its always the wish of the director and the producer to choose their topic and target audience accordingly.

If you like it, go and watch the movie and if you don't like it, forget about it.
Simply like what we did for many American movies on Columbia and Russia.

Satyam Saga....from the eyes of a common man..

I was sitting at a small roadside tea stall toady evening with some of office friends as usual and we were just like that chatting. All of sudden a guy sitting next to us (I believe he was a cab driver by his looks I felt so) asked us a very simple question. "What is all this ho halla about Satyam?? ". We looked at his face in a bit of annoying manner but tried to give him a one line reply that "Mr Raju, Boss of Satyam did some fraud and he was caught"

Then that guy started like a financial expert. He explained to us what went wrong with Satyam, what all Mr Raju did and why he was not able to escape all this. According to him Mr. Raju was one of the few financial wizards who played with Government's money and gave all the profit to their employees. Satyam was the only company who took average students with 50-60 % marks and backlogs and made their life happy. The company allowed people to work at their ease from home and work with flexible working hours.

Next smart person according to him was Mr. Harshad Mehta. Who duped rich people and helped poor and general junta. According to him when he was in the process of getting executed he asked his servants at home to run away with as much cash they can pack in a gunnysack. They worship him till date.

According to this character sitting next to us, any one who is duping rich people and sharing his wealth with poor and middle class people are the one who should be treated as Robin Hoods. He said that because of these guys now a days hundreds and thousands of youngsters are living a comfortable life by working in many call centres.

Although he was a bit worried about Satyam shares he was holding but confident also that he won't be in loss.

Even before we could digest the whole session by him, he got a phone call and he went away driving his Qualis. So informed are the people now a days that them sometime leave so called professionals like us speechless and I am loving it !!

Recession and India

I came across this explanation of Recession and how India is fighting against it. So though of sharing it with due permission from my friend who shared same with me :)

Here it goes

Political Threat..Hunh....

In past few days we came across Samajwaadi party offering a ticket to Sanju Baba!! That was not at all a surprise move. Sooner or later this was supposed to happen. And Mr Jethmalani, who once fought for Sanju Baba is now declaring him as a threat to "National Security". If he really was a threat, why he was defending him previously.

If all the existing politicians are not a threat for India how come someone like Sanju Baba be considered as a threat? If all the murderers, extortionist etc can be our netas, why not Sanju?

Our democracy is a great leveller, its the only place that allows Harvard graduates and criminals to share a same platform. And I am sure if Sanjay fights for elections, he is going to vin for sure.

So Munnabhai chale Parliament......

Google's Evil Act

Is this really true??

Google's Evil Act

If yes....this was not expected from someone like "Google" and I am sorry to be worshiping Google...

Can we live without e-mail and Internet now..?

I first came across something known as e-mail and Internet long back in early January 1999 at India Internet World, Pragati Maidaan, N Delhi. I was introduced to this by one of my batch mate at CDAC. It was really hard for me to believe at that point of time that anything like this can happen. To receive a mail you just needed a mail id and you have to know the nearest cyber cafe address.

I still remember those post dial up screens while connecting for Internet. Usually we used to keep our mails ready in a notepad and carry the same to the cyber cafe in a floppy so that we can send few mails within one hour. Visiting cafe once in 15 days was the best I could do at that time.

Now if I see, even a primary kid has got more mail pals that I am having in my total life till now. Now thinking that we can do away without e-mail is unbelievable. I now communicate using e-mail for my official and personal things. People expect a reply to the mail they sent to me few minutes back. And this has been fuelled up by social networking sites. Moment I see a new scrap in my scrapbook I am tempted to reply to that :). I never go to a railway station for booking my tickets, I book online. I never visit my bank branch for any transaction, I do it online. I do a voice/video chat with my family and friends instead of calling them. Things seems to be lot more easier and smoother because of Internet revolution. I can book hotels and restaurants online to have party with friends. I am more into e-life now a days because of this Internet boom.

This looks like the biggest revolution after mobile phones to me and now it seems to impossible to live without these.

Laws of life

I seriously believe people should follow these rules in their life to be happy.

1. Truth is a matter of timing: When I said that there was nothing wrong with the network it was true, things have changed. I love it when people try to hold me to things I said and try to tell me I am lying. This "rule" is more of a scientific proof.


2. Hold yourself only to your own standards: Do not hold yourself to others' standards. Hold yourself to your own measure (which is usually a much higher standard anyway), and have never felt wanting in any way.


3. Be selfish: There is a famous quote "If you are not for yourself, who will be? If you are only for yourself, what are you?" The one human being you are in the best position to protect and take care of is yourself, and you need care and protection like everyone else, so do yourself and everyone else a favour and take care of yourself first and others second. If you don't take care of yourself adequately
a)someone else is eventually going to get stuck with the burden of bailing you out and
b)your ability to help others is going to be diminished. Putting others first is really the ultimate selfish act. Take care of your own legitimate needs first, and then help others.

4. No one has any power over you which you do not choose to give them: What is your boss going to do, fire you? Unless you choose to allow that to have power over you, it is just an empty threat.

5. Owe people nothing: If you do things for people out of a gloomy feeling of obligation you are going to a half-hearted job of it and the other person is going to feel your half-heartiness too making things worse. If you do things for other people because you simply enjoy doing things for other people then you are going to put some passion into it because it’s fun and rewarding and the other person will sense it and feel uplifted. If you don't enjoy doing things for other people then just accept it and move on and don't drag yourself and other people down by doing things for others out of "obligation."

6. No remorse: Same thing. Either decide to make amends, which will free you from the feeling of remorse, or decide that you did nothing wrong and move on. Ruminating on bad choices to make you feel remorse for more than the split second necessary to decide to make amends is just self-indulgence. Some people mistakenly feel that "I feel really bad about what I did, and that’s punishment enough"

7. No guilt: Guilt is just an unpleasant emotion that happens after the fact and only in the brain of a single individual. By itself the emotion of guilt does nothing in the world except make one person miserable. If the first feel of guilt about a specific action results in the sufferer promptly taking action to make amends (which erases the guilt), then great. But guilt that lasts more than the split second necessary to take action on making amends doesn't help anyone, and may actually make the world a worse place to the extent people decide on how guilty they feel is an acceptable substitute for making amends.

I am emulating few lines from one of my friend's profile "It’s better to be hated for what you are, than to be loved for what you are not "

Money is not all we want....... is it?

Auto! Auto!" Ranjeev was calling out at a passing by auto rickshaw.
It was a Saturday evening. His roommates had been home for a long weekend. Yeah, Monday and Tuesday were declared holidays owing to a local festival. Ranjeev is working as a Software Engineer for a multinational company for the past 4 years.

"Tidel Park. How much?"
"Forty Five rupees, sir"
"Forty"
"Okay, sir"
In five minutes, they were at Metro signal caught up in a traffic jam.
"This signal always like this sir!. "Your cell phone ringing, sir".
Ranjeev was unaware as the ring tone was set to a low .

"Hello Aman!" ... "Long time man. Where are you?" ... "Oh man! I read the reviews. They say the movie is good. Got some work at office?" ...
"No, nothing serious. But have to go and do it today" ... "Sorry, I wont be able to join you guys for the movie today. Another time, okay?" ...
"Aish Kar. Chal, bye!"
"You work for computer company?" asked the autowalah.
"Yes! How do you know that?"
"Neatly dressing, smart, having cellphone, going to Tidel Park. I am running auto for 15 years sir. I know people by seeing only."
Ranjeev is dulled at people outlining software engineers the way they do. "It is never easy as said. It is not the apparent money and ostensible looks that make up a software engineer," he thought. "There is more to it * project, deadlines, quality, pressure, bonus, stress, onsite, and the list is long."
"Computer companies are good sir, giving job to youth. You all work very hard. I drop people from Tidel Park at midnight."
Ranjeev was maintaining his silence.
"Now people work like you very early. When I was youth I have many friends. We see many films. Ten, fifteen film one month. Saturday, Sunday we play cricket in our local park. Bet match sir for 50 rupees, 100 rupees. We win, then we will go to film or drink. I am big fan of Amitabh I had seen all of his films. His acting is very good. That time was really enjoying sir. You don't like films sir?"
"No, I like watching movies. I am planning to go to 'Dil Kabaddi' tomorrow"
"Where running sir?"
"Satyam"
"You go alone? No friends? Friends are important sir. No enjoyment without friends sir."
"My friends are going now. I have some work to finish today. So I am going tomorrow."
"Work will be there every time sir. Youth will go sir. If you don't mistake, I say something sir?"
Though looking uninterested, he had an urge to let him go. He nodded his head, "Mmm."
"You have more money but no time to spend money. You work more and get more money. Then time is very, very less to spend money. Then why do you need money sir? See sir, it is enough if you earn as much as you can spend. My father tell it to me. I follow it sir."
Ranjeev was deep in thought rewinding through his senior school days with Aman. Aman was his chum in class. They had been reading together from class VII. The last movie they saw together was 'Hum Aapke Hain Kaun' during their final year at school. Both being Salman aficionados, they watched almost all of his movies together. Now that they both work at a Metro City they call up rarely and chitchat for sometime.
The auto came to a stop. "Tidel Park, sir" "If I talk something wrong, sorry sir."
"Thats okay. Can you take me to Satyam theatre? Fifty rupees?"
"Okay sir. Going to film sir?"
"Yes. With my friends."

Calling Aman..Connecting.."Hello Ranji!"

"Hey Aman! I am joining you guys for the movie. Can you guys get a ticket for me? I am on my way to Satyam."
"Good that you called me. I bought a ticket for you too before I called you up. Now I was trying to sell it out."

"Thanks man! Keep it for me."

"Come soon. See you!"

Why should we earn when we don't get the time to spend it the way that we enjoy the most!!!!!!
Don't give a slap to your personal life working on Weekends when they are yours.

People United

Despite all the loss and pain we suffered due to 26/11 one good thing came out, "The People". I could see lots and lots of people from all places coming together and demanding, sharing the pain and expressing their anger and grief over what happened. This is the first time in the history of independent India that people had came together to show their anger toward our useless politicians who are just busy passing the bucks.

People are saying today that Enough is Enough and we are not going to tolerate all this now on. We are paying taxes to the government so that they spend all this money to protect some so called biggies who are facing murder charges against them. If they are truly peoples' representatives why do they need all this showbiz of having Z+ and Z security. When the people who are voting for them are not being protected why do they pay for their politicians' security?

Why should one go out and vote for someone who is doing nothing to protect their interests? I believe we should have an option of "No one is fit" while voting and given this option, I am sure that most of us will go for that option. What is the need of keeping and feeding these white elephants who are all burden on our country. Why should be a politician be paid so much, why should he be given free electricity, free residence, free telephone, free security cover and free travel when a general citizen has to fight for his basic needs and requirements?

Under present situation, while leaving home in morning, no one is sure what is going to happen to him later in the day, wether he will come back home safely or not is not sure to him. When a common man who was supposed to be the pillar of democracy is now shaken and stirred, how can we expect the democracy to survive?

When politicians have no respect for the rules and regulation of this country, why should a common man be made scapegoat for something he never opted of?

Where a Home minister is more concerned about his dress than the safety of people, where a  chief minister is more concerned about the vote bank and ignores the group of people taking over law in the name of regionalism, where ruling coalition is still busy playing the cast card for electing the new chief minister, no wonder a bunch of guys in their twenties have courage to plan and execute the attack on Mumbai's soft targets. I wonder why these politicians are never targeted by these terrorist attacks?

How so called owners of Mumbai are still not in scene despite all this happened and those unwanted outsiders came, fought, laid their lives and rescued people from those attack targets?

How can intelligence fail in collecting and interpreting these vital inputs that led to the attack? Its like a sailor saying that I could not take the ship into deep seas. This is what he is supposed to do, this is his job. If the solider posted on the border starts ignoring his duties, can we be peaceful at our homes?

Instead of passing the bucks, everyone has to be honest to his/her duties and responsibilities and has to be an active and aware citizen if we want our country to be a peaceful and developed place worth living.

LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER

After Mumbai 26/11, I came across this excellent piece of write up named "LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER "

Thought its good to share it will Indians around world who really care for India and I believe they all are speaking the same language.

Dear Mr. Prime minister

I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that.

Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our Bollywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India.

Enough is enough. As such after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys I realize that if same thing continues days are not away when terrorist will attack by air, destroy our nuclear reactor and there will be one more Hiroshima.

We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbaikar Shanghai what you have given us is Jalianwala Baag.

Today only your home minister resigned. What took you so long to kick out this joker? Only reason was that he was loyal to Gandhi family. Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent people, isn't it?

I am born and bought up in Mumbai for last fifty eight years. Believe me corruption in Maharashtra is worse than that in Bihar. Look at all the politician, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal Thackray , Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money.  Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief minister I have seen. His only business is to increase the FSI every other day, make money and send it to Delhi so Congress can fight next election. Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fisherman so they can build concrete house right on sea shore. Next time terrorist can comfortably live in those house , enjoy the beauty of sea and then attack the Mumbai at their will.

Recently I had to purchase house in Mumbai. I met about two dozen builders. Everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI you and your finance minister are not aware of it. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time please come to me, I will tell you everything.

If this has been land of fools, idiots then I would not have ever cared to write you this letter. Just see the tragedy, on one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent and on other side you politician has converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, Creamy Schedule caste only what I am not is INDIAN. You politician have raped every part of mother India by your policy of divide and rule.

Take example of former president Abdul Kalam. Such a intelligent person, such a fine human being. You politician didn't even spare him.  Your party along with opposition joined the hands, because politician feels they are supreme and there is no place for good person.

Dear Mr Prime minister you are one of the most intelligent person, most learned person. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost expose all selfish politician. Ask Swiss bank to give name of all Indian account holder. Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolf among us. There will be political upheaval but that will better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day.  Just give us ambient where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.

Choice is yours Mr. Prime Minister. Do you want to be lead by one person or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?

Relations....

Relations is one of the most complex gifts to his society by human beings. Its a collection of different tastes..sweet, sour, salty, bitter and so on...

There are so many types of relations like with normal friends, parents, siblings, close friends, colleagues, buddies from school and college and many more...Some you choose and some you don't....To keep in sync with everyone and to be with everyone all the time is itself a great skill, that one need to inherit to be good at relations.

Although I am gifted with many beautiful relations in my life. There are people who mean everything to me in life and hope I do mean something to atleast few of them in their lives, but I somehow feel I am not so good at nourishing those, as I can see I am missing few of my relations and need to upgrade myself on this front. I feel I had hurt few of my relations (who I chose myself) in recent past and I repent my actions . Wished I had updated myself well, so that I could have avoided that.

I miss those relations very badly. For some I lost, I am really puzzled what went wrong, for some I knew there were my so called other relations responsible,but now that is past and can't be changed. Wish I could go back in time and correct my mistakes.

I knew very well that relationships are meant to be cherished not to be broken, but feel myself helpless standing at various junctions of life, just stuck with the responsibilities and expectations of my other relations.

Whenever I am alone and think of my past, I find myself in a situation like in the lines below..

कोई फरियाद तेरे दिल मैं दबी हो जैसे,
तूने आँखों से कोई बात कही हो जैसे,
जान बाकी हो मगर,सांस रुकी हो जैसे ...
हर मुलाकात पर महसूस यही होता है..
मुझसे कुछ तेरी नज़र पूछ रही हो जैसे..
राह चलते हुए अक्सर यह गुमान होता है,
वो नज़र छुप के मुझे देख रही हो जैसे..

Mumbai Mirror

The recent terrorist attacks on Mumbai showed us

• How easily security was infiltrated
• How people kept their cool in such situation
• How can a bunch of youth, when misguided can lay their life for something cruel like this in the name of terrorism
• How our brave fighters took over the whole situation and sanitised everything
• How shamelessly our great politicians behave in these situations
• How media stood by for minute by minute update to make us feel safe
• How a normal Mumbaikar was there to serve tea to Jawans fighting there

Those terrorists tried their best to ruin our image of a peaceful nation in the name of religious warfare, but of no use. We are still a economically sound, peaceful and rock solid country and nothing like this can shake us.

I heard about all this at around midnight and ever since keeping a close watch on the happening. It was rather shocking and painful to see innocent people being targeted for no reason. I would rather say, if you want a war, let it be a war. We'll close the topic once for all. We lost many innocent and brave lives, someone lost their son, a girl who was planning to get married lost her future husband, a family in UP lost their son who went to Mumbai to earn so that he can earn for marriage of his sister and so many more.....

Media was giving update minute by minute, net was flooded with updates on sites like twitter, blogger etc, but I seriously think the media has to be more responsible to decide what should be disclosed and what should not to be shown.

Sometimes I wonder why we can't provide advanced weapons to each and every police personal. I don't thing budget should be a restrain for this as I believe this can be provided if extravagant expenditure on useless politicians can be trimmed a bit. If they had all this , there was no need for them to wait for NSG to arrive at scene and they could had acted much faster. One of the frustrating things to see was that we had the first statement from any politician, Dr. Manmohan Singh after 19 hours from when the terrorist attacks started, no one else seriously bothered about all this as they don't have anything to capitalise on, what a shame.

One thing I would like to mention specially is about Raj Thakery and MNS people were. I hope he knew that NSG people although were not marathi manoos but they risked their lives to save so call "his Mumbai". Hope he must have understood that not all people think like him, or else still Taj would have been under control of terrorists. On the other hand there were Mumbaikar who were offering tea to the Jawans fighting for their countrymen at all the attack locations.

People should have faith in their system and has to be more vigilant as a citizen to prevent anything like this from happening.

Alvida "Dada"

Yesterday was the day an Era ended in Indian cricket. After so much of ups, downs, yes and no..Dada retired from international cricket. Some events on the final day

1. Ganguly taking over as Indian captain in final overs.

2. Kumble coming to the podium and collecting the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

3. Champagne enjoyed by the team and

4. The victory lap of team.

Dhoni really a smart chap, in all this also he got applauds..indeed a smarty.

For me whenever I talk about Dada  I remember the Lords balcony with Dada swinging his t-shirt, Dada hitting sixes to each and every bowler coming to bowl, Dada leading team in a messed up situation and still winning it. Dada is a perfect example of a fighter who made ripples all around with his Pepsi As "Bhoole to nahin" and returned back to team with a bang. He was victimised by the dirty politics of Indian cricket controlled mainly by a bunch of politically influenced veterans 

His was a glory period and we all relished it.

Hoping to see Dada again in action in some new avatar soon...

Calcutta a "Mixed Bag"

It has been more than one year for me in Calcutta as of now and I came across so many more things over here that I though of penning it down to share it again. And yes I am calling Kolkata as Calcutta because ever since I remember, I knew this place as Calcutta only and I loved that name.

I had been to other metros also, came across various places/people but this city, oldest metro of my country is again a Pandora's box for me.

This city has got a culture of British Raaj, old buildings depicting the legacy of English spread into acres and acres of land like Victoria Memorial



Also I could see people struggling to reach their destinations in crowded buses



I could see few places of ample parking space in the heart of the city



Also I could see bumper to bumper parking nearby



I could see people enjoying a Ferry ride for pleasure and outing



Also I could see a fisherman waiting for fishes to get caught in his net patiently for hours in the same waters



I could see mad rush of people during Durga Puja celebrations



Also I could see same old city moving at its own pace somewhere else



I could see innovative ideas during during Durga Puja celebrations



Also I could see very old local trains acting as a backbone of the city



I could see nature at its best during one of my outings



Also I could see craftsman's perfect creations



As we sit and watch, the city opens up bit by bit and shows us its many faces....

Are the brahmins and other upper castes of yesterday becoming the Dalits of today??

At a time when the government is pushing more and more to raise the quota for Other Backward Classes in private and public sectors, nobody talks about the plight of the upper castes. The public image of the Brahmins, for instance, is that of an affluent, pampered class. But is it so today?

There are 50 Sulabh Shauchalayas (public toilets) in Delhi; all of them are cleaned and looked after by Brahmins (this very welcome public institution was started by a Brahmin). A far cry from the elitist image that Brahmins have!

There are five to six Brahmins manning each Shauchalaya. They came to Delhi eight to ten years back looking for a source of income, as they were a minority in most of their villages, where Dalits are in majority (60 per cent to 65 per cent). In most villages in UP and Bihar, Dalits have a union which helps them secure jobs in villages.

Did you know that you also stumble upon a number of Brahmins working as coolies at Delhi's railway stations? One of them, Kripa Shankar Sharma, says while his daughter is doing her Bachelors in Science he is not sure if she will secure a job.

"Dalits often have five to six kids, but they are confident of placing them easily and well," he says. As a result, the Dalit population is increasing in villages. He adds: "Dalits are provided with housing, even their pigs have spaces; whereas there is no provision for gaushalas (cowsheds) for the cows of the Brahmins."

You also find Brahmin rickshaw pullers in Delhi. 50 per cent of Patel Nagar's rickshaw pullers are Brahmins who like their brethren have moved to the city looking for jobs for lack of employment opportunities and poor education in their villages.

Even after toiling the whole day, Vijay Pratap and Sidharth Tiwari, two Brahmin rickshaw pullers, say they are hardly able to make ends meet. These men make about Rs 100 to Rs 150 on an average every day from which they pay a daily rent of Rs 25 for their rickshaws and Rs 500 to Rs 600 towards the rent of their rooms which is shared by 3 to 4 people or their families.

Did you also know that most rickshaw pullers in Banaras are Brahmins?

This reverse discrimination is also found in bureaucracy and politics. Most of the intellectual Brahmin Tamil class has emigrated outside Tamil Nadu. Only 5 seats out of 600 in the combined UP and Bihar assembly are held by Brahmins -- the rest are in the hands of the Yadavs.

400,000 Brahmins of the Kashmir valley, the once respected Kashmiri Pandits, now live as refugees in their own country, sometimes in refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi in appalling conditions. But who gives a damn about them? Their vote bank is negligible.

And this is not limited to the North alone. 75 per cent of domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins. A study of the Brahmin community in a district in Andhra Pradesh reveals that today all purohits live below the poverty line.

Eighty per cent of those surveyed stated that their poverty and traditional style of dress and hair (tuft) had made them the butt of ridicule. Financial constraints coupled with the existing system of reservations for the 'backward classes' prevented them from providing secular education to their children.

Who are the real Dalits of India?

In fact, according to this study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. With the average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level. In the 5 to 18 year age group, 44 per cent Brahmin students stopped education at the primary level and 36 per cent at the pre-matriculation level.

The study also found that 55 per cent of all Brahmins lived below the poverty line -- below a per capita income of Rs 650 a month. Since 45 per cent of the total population of India is officially stated to be below the poverty line it follows that the percentage of destitute Brahmins is 10 per cent higher than the all-India figure.

There is no reason to believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is different. In this connection it would be revealing to quote the per capita income of various communities as stated by the Karnataka finance minister in the state assembly: Christians Rs 1,562, Vokkaligas Rs 914, Muslims Rs 794, Scheduled castes Rs 680, Scheduled Tribes Rs 577 and Brahmins Rs 537.

Appalling poverty compels many Brahmins to migrate to towns leading to spatial dispersal and consequent decline in their local influence and institutions. Brahmins initially turned to government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine. But preferential policies for the non-Brahmins have forced Brahmins to retreat in these spheres as well.

According to the Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate among them is as high as 75 per cent. Seventy percent of Brahmins are still relying on their hereditary vocation. There are hundreds of families that are surviving on just Rs 500 per month as priests in various temples.

Priests are under tremendous difficulty today, sometimes even forced to beg for alms for survival. There are innumerable instances in which Brahmin priests who spent a lifetime studying Vedas are being ridiculed and disrespected.

At Tamil Nadu's Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest's monthly salary is Rs 300 and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same temple receive Rs 2,500 plus per month. But these facts have not modified the priests' reputation as 'haves' and as 'exploiters.' The destitution of Hindu priests has moved none, not even the parties known for Hindu sympathy.

The tragedy of modern India is that the combined votes of Dalits/OBC and Muslims are enough for any government to be elected. The Congress quickly cashed in on it after Independence, but probably no other government than Sonia Gandhi's has gone so far in shamelessly dividing Indian society for garnering votes.

'These measures will not achieve social justice'

The Indian government gives Rs 1,000 crores (Rs 10 billion) for salaries of imams in mosques and Rs 200 crores (Rs 2 billion) as Haj subsidies. But no such help is available to Brahmins and upper castes. As a result, not only the Brahmins, but also some of the other upper castes in the lower middle class are suffering in silence today, seeing the minorities slowly taking control of their majority.

So the question is: Are the Brahmins (and other upper castes) of yesterday becoming the Dalits of today?

Where are my Mails ??

Last week I got a wonderfully drafted e-mail from one of my friend asking for my Snail mail (postal) address. Although there was nothing wrong in what he was asking for , but still he had explained one full paragraph for why he had asked that!

I am not able to remember when did I last penned down a letter to anyone. I am a typical netizen. My day starts with e-mails and also ends with e-mails. Yet I eagerly wait for a snail mail during Rakshabandhan, I'm more than happy to receive a greeting card on my birthday than e-cards, mails or scraps.  I am an avid fan of gadgets but I still love having a look on snap prints all around me on floor instead of browsing through those digital images on my laptop.

People like me today prefer e-mail/phone calls/Sms instead of writing letters to each other. But the pleasure of letters can't be replaced by these e-tools. I used to earlier check my letter-box regularly anxiously for letters from my friends, grandpa, cousins & relatives. Today I check that letter-box once in a week as it receives only magazines I had subscribed or promotional letters from banks and airlines.

The whole world around me has changed a lot, I don't even know the price of Inland letter or a postcard because it has been long since I had ever used them.I used to keep all my letters safely during my school days and that box still lies safely at my parents' place. Whenever I get a chance to read those letters and greetings I enjoy the travel through the memory lane.

The so called technological advancement might have changed and eased our lives but it had taken out the essence of "The journey called Life" from us.

'The Wall' erected to honour Dravid

The Wall

Dravid being honoured for his achievements by Karnataka Cricket Association.

Smoking banned in India (Read "banned in public ")

The so called social movement has officially started in India effective today (As our Mr. Health Minister says) with the help of enforcement agencies. Even companies where smoking was allowed inside office had also circulated this memorandum of no smoking to support it. Many feel although this move will not be able to stop people from smoking but it may help in their efforts to kick the butt.

My question in this line is "Does anyone really need a law if he/she wants to quit smoking and if they don't want to quit , can any law help??"

Everyone knows how much effective is any ban in our country. I would love to see how this ban on smoking in public will be implemented. I see people (read Cigarette consumers ) discussing the implications and effects of this law. Every one is anxious to see the outcome of implementation to be implemented all over India starting tomorrow. Personally I neither support this nor I oppose this as this is one more law for me which I know will be implemented in typical government execution style. Police will be happy to settle scores with the offenders caught smoking(read off record cases), filling their pockets and letting people go away.

Lets wait and see what happens of this much hyped law on 139th birth anniversary of Mr. Gandhi.

I had read somewhere "To quit smoking is not very difficult, we know because we have tried it a 1000 times "

Underestimating Google is always fatal

Google's first Android-based phone was announced Tuesday and so far, the response has been mixed.

Some believe it'll be the next big thing in the cell phone business because it adds some basics such as a physical keyboard (that the iPhone is lacking incidently) Others believe the G1 will fall flat on its face because it's not unique and its omissions (Exchange support, for one) will make it lose out in the corporate space. (For a full comparison of the two devices, see "T-Mobile G1 Vs. Apple iPhone 3G.")

I tend to agree on both counts. I think Android could be a major hit in the cell phone space, but the G1 won't be able to stand up to Apple or RIM. It's too underpowered and its obvious omissions tell me T-Mobile and Google rushed it before it was ready.

But Android is an entirely different story. At its core, Android is a platform that has tons of potential. It's not only open (which is probably the best feature), it offers full Google integration, which is a key concept in today's age of Google domination, and its touch-screen capabilities mean Apple isn't the only other major company doing something unique in the market.

But my belief that Android will be a success goes far beyond the product itself. Call me crazy, but I can't think of one reason why anyone would underestimate Google. Countless times, companies have ignored Google and let it slip into a market, only to learn when it's too late that it's the leader.

And while it's easy for Apple and the rest to scoff now, you can bet that that's exactly what Google wants.

Who would have thought that Google would become such a powerhouse in the tech industry? Ask.com certainly didn't think it could happen and neither did Yahoo. AOL must have thought Google was just another flash in the pan. Oh how wrong they were.

And what about Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and the rest? Certainly Microsoft and Yahoo didn't believe that a product called Gmail would make an impact, right? After all, why would anyone actually want to use an online email application from Google when they can use Outlook on any Windows machine in existence? Nice one, Microsoft.

Speaking of Microsoft, where was it when Google was building its online advertising empire? And why didn't it stop Google in its tracks once the company started bringing Google Docs online to compete with Office? Oh, and what about that whole search thing? Didn't Microsoft see that one coming?

Google has its grips in countless markets in the tech industry. It leads the way in search and advertising, but it's a major player in online productivity apps, mapping solutions, and a slew of other places where the leader was supplanted without much worry. And although it's still struggling with YouTube, we can't forget that Google was the only company that had both the money and vision to acquire that site.

The key to Google's success throughout the years is two-fold: it offered superior products because it understood what customers wanted, but it also capitalized on all its competitors that failed to believe that a company with that crazy name could become a powerhouse in any market.

Oh, how wrong they were.

And now, as Android finally hits store shelves next month, companies in the cell phone industry are making the same mistake. Microsoft claims it isn't worried about Android (we've been down this road before, Microsoft), Apple doesn't see it as a worry, and RIM has practically ignored it. All the while, Sergey and Larry have been forming alliances with companies that will see dozens of Android-based phones hit store shelves over the next few years.

Have any of these companies learned anything? Sure, the search and advertising business is much different that cell phone software, but Google's knowledge about what the consumer wants hasn't changed. Worse, Google's understanding of what the market needs has gotten better over time.

At this point, I don't know if Android will lead the way in the cell phone industry and I have no idea if Google will supplant Apple and the rest or face annihilation. But if I had to put money on the most likely outcome, I wouldn't bet against Google. The company has been right too many times to bet against it.

Apple, RIM, Microsoft, and the rest need to wake up and realize that the G1's success isn't indicative of the future success of Google in the cell phone industry. Android is.

So called Reality Talent Shows

Now a days there are lots of so called reality/ Talent TV shows, but they are also for the rich and able people. People from across country come and participate, they persuade people to send SMS for them and all that stuff.

One of my friend came across one of the couple who were singing in Local trains in Kolkata. The guy was singing beautifully but not much of recognition. He shared this video with me and I was forced to publish it.

Do watch the video..its awesome

I would be happy to see these guys competing in all these shows, so that real talent comes out.